Wednesday, November 20, 2013

I have been thinking about a damage reduction. With most forms of damage reduction a rating is assigned and reduced from any damage a character may take. For example is a character has a damage reduction of two. And would normally take five damage, that damage would be reduced to three as the two would be subtracted from the damage assigned.

While I think this is a simple and easy to track mechanic. I find it troublesome. At low levels and lower damage dice, damage rating is powerful. A high damage reduction at lower levels is very powerful. So damage rating has to be watched or it can unbalance a game quickly.

At higher levels lower damage ratings is very underpowered. If damage rating scales with level than the character becomes a Juggernaut and ignores all weaker attacks.

My proposal for an alternate damage reduction is that any natural roll equal or less than the rating is ignored. On a damage reduction of 1 any natural roll of one on a damage die is read as 0, all bonuses to damage are ignored and no damage is taken.

This applies to all damage dice individually. If 3d6 is rolled for damage. And the target has a damage reduction of 2 all die rolled 2 or less is ignored and only the remaining dice are added up. For example:

3D6 damage is rolled, the dice come up 2, 4, and 6. Since the target has a damage reduction of 2, the die that rolled a 2 is removed and only the 4 and 6 are counted resulting in a damage roll of 10.

This does make damage reduction powerful. so each point of damage reduction should really be thought of as x1.5 to x2 as powerful as the last and given very sparingly. But even at low levels damage reduction is still a benefit to higher level characters. And a 4-6 damage reduction is equally super human to low and high level characters.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

I love all the classes in Amazing Adventures, I still feel that a few more could make great additions to the game. Notable a soldier class. Rather than reinventing the wheel I've decided to adapt some classed from Castles and Crusades instead.

Fighters are the obvious choice for a soldier class. With just a few adjustments a fighter is ready for pulp adventure. The only real changes need is clarification of class abilities:

Weapon specialization: This ability includes any weapon available to the soldier, Which is any. Firearms included.

Combat dominance: This ability only applies to melee and fisticuffs.

Extra attack: This ability applies to firearms, melee, and fisticuffs.

That is it, done.

Another optional class I think could be fun is the Hunter. A combat oriented soldier, A pathfinder who stocks the wooded areas. For this ill just adapt the ranger class. With just a few changes to the original C&C ranger class.

Combat Marauder: This ability is now Combat marauder (Wis), A roll must be made first to study an enemy before gaining the damage bonus.

For the abilities of Neutralize poison, Move silent, Scale, Traps, Survival, and Track all work as they do for the ranger. No change.

Favored enemy: will instead be Familiar enemy and applies to dangerous animals and wild creatures in the wild. Knowledge and respect of ones enemy is what gives the Hunter its edge.

Monday, November 18, 2013

Expanded Races looks to be another great little supplement for the castles and crusades system, brought to us by Christina Stiles Presents.

Created by Brian Boostra, Hal Greenburg, & Peter Schroeder

Edited by Christina Stiles

Art and Layout by Peter Bradly

(Disclaimer: Once again, this with a lot of my mini reviews will be done in my usual gushing fanboy style.)

Granite Dwarves is just six pages including cover, Acknowledgements, and OGL, which take up the first two pages. The four remaining pages are dense with information and a very good read.

Pages three and first half of four go into the "fluff" of the Granite dwarf race. Description, personality, racial affinity, and environment are all covered. The information given is colorful and at the same time to the point. The Granite dwarves are fleshed out enough for use as characters and NPCs, plenty of material for players and CKs alike.

Second half of page four starts into the "mechanics" of the race. With a large section devoted to racial traits and abilities. My impression after reading this was that "these are dwarves". These are the dwarves of the deep places I want in my game. From now on these are my dwarves, Ill be using the dwarf writeup in the PH for those that have chosen to live in the human lands and not of "true" dwarven stock.

Rounding out page four is the usual C&C racial information. Languages, size, movement, typical classes, attribute mods, and ability modifiers are all included.

On the fifth page is the "optional" section. As with the Fantasy races unlocked: Kobolds there is six racial traits that can be chosen, each replaces a set racial trait from the "stock" Granite dwarf profile. All six seem well thought out and interesting.

Next to the optional traits there are two examples of Granite dwarves. The two "typical" Granite dwarves are of a level one fighter and a level five cleric. Both could be used for a quick NPC or an adversary.

The last section of of page five is an "encounters with Granite dwarves" entry. This section will be most useful for CKs wanting to run Granite dwarves as NPCs or adversaries. This is the kind of entry you would find in a monster manual.

The sixth and last page is a bonus page of sorts. It seems the Granite dwarves have an adversary, The Frigid, goblins. This page has a full monster write up for these nasty little creatures who love the taste of Granite dwarf flesh. Also located on the page is two items of note., two magic items that seamlessly fit into the setting that would include Granite dwarves.

Christina Stiles Presents & Arcana Creations team up to bring a bundle suitable for tundra terrains.
This bundle includes Expanded Races Granite Dwarves and A Trick on the Tain. For just 5.50$ on RPGnow.comI'm really hoping to see more C&C goods from Christina Stiles Presents.
Now that I have been introduced to adventures from Arcana Creations I will be picking them up, Reviews incoming.